Before Paige Spiranac became golf’s biggest online force, she was chasing scores, not followers. The OG Insta Golf Girl has played just one professional season. However, she's earned zero LPGA Tour starts, and recorded no official tour victories. Yet she remains one of the most talked-about figures in golf. So how did an athlete with limited pro finishes become a global golf phenomenon?

It was through competition that the pro-turned influencer started her journey. In 2015, Spiranac appeared in the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour. She posted rounds of 77 and 79, finishing +12 (156) and missing the cut, placing T-101 out of 107 players. She missed the cut, but the Dubai start set the stage for what came next. 

The most active year for Paige Spiranac

Starting with the 2016 Cactus Tour, she played 7 events but, unfortunately, could win only one. Rounds of 71-74-68, followed by a playoff win over top amateur Hannah O’Sullivan at Orange Tree Golf Club, Scottsdale. She didn’t stop there and finished 17th in a 52-player field at the Aliante golf club and finished 7th at Walnut Creek, Mansfield, Texas. Though she didn’t win in Texas, it was one of her best non-winning results. 

With several additional starts resulting in a few mid-pack finishes, Paige Spiranac earned around $8,000. It was good for 11th on the 2016 Cactus Tour money list. "I'm excited for Q-School, but also nervous,” Spiranac quoted before her LPGA trials. The same year, in 2016, Spiranac entered the LPGA Q-School Stage I. Unfortunately, despite preparation and media interest, she did not advance and failed to secure LPGA status.

After this, Paige Spiranac stepped away from the golf course and choose a different path. The reason was not that she wasn’t performing well, but because of golf course anxiety. In August 2025, Spiranac shared a video on X explaining why she stopped competing. "So I have a really toxic love-hate relationship with the game of golf. And I have talked about this ad nauseam. It was one of the reasons why I stopped playing golf professionally," Paige Spiranac confessed.

Nevertheless, Spiranac had her path clear and turned into a model full-time. In 2018, she appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Currently, Paige Spiranac has 4 million followers on Instagram, more than 1 million on X, and 1.6 million on TikTok. While her competitive career was brief and statistically modest, the results paint a clear picture. Meanwhile, being a golf influencer has given Spiranac another way to help women’s golf grow.

Written by

Dolly Bhamrick

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi